stationery experiment v2.0

"She used to tie her hair up in ribbons and bows, sign her letters with x's and o's" - American Girl by Trisha Yearwood

If you can't tell, I'm into making cards and other paper goods. I enjoy designing things on the computer [like the valentines cards], but I also like to create personalized and unique postcards or notes from scratch with materials that I have. The beauty of this is that you can take a plain notecard or piece of cardstock and transform it in any way you want: as simple or as creative as you please.. and for cheap! Here, I made some sample notecards out of a bright colored mat stack I found at TJ Max for 3 bones, various ribbon scraps or $1 ribbon [weakness] from Michael's, leftover fabric from other projects, and buttons from grandma's sewing drawer. [I'm a sucker for buttons] They make each card unique and represent a little part of the past that I feel like I'm giving to my friends and family. I used a hole punch and super glue gel in this little project, but hot glue would also work. I plan on doing more of these stationery experiments. Get excited.

Happy card making! xoxo!

xoxo

How about some Ray Lamontagne - You Are the Best Thing for this blog about valentines and sweet homemade cards. Scroll down towards the bottom of the post. I finally found a gadget that will let me play youtube while reading. Perrrrrfect!

It's February [where did January go?] and the month of ... dun, dun, dun ... valentines. Now, believe me, I've NEVER been one to love Valentine's Day. I may have had two enjoyable Vdays since age 12 to now. As a small child, I'm sure it was fun. I liked making cards. But as I got older, I grew more bitter. I was either worried about how many more/less candy grams and carnations I would get than my friends at school, watching my pals flirt with their boyfriends who were A GRADE ABOVE US OHMYGOSH, or getting awkward presents from boys I didn't like. My friend and I went as far as to boycott the holiday my senior year in high school by wearing all black and listening to Metallica. This hatred even transitioned to college where I once had to go on what felt like a black ops secret mission in order to escape a valentine's date... It's a sensitive subject that I do NOT like to bring up unless absolutely necessary. I'm warming up to the idea of Valentine's Day.. but mostly because I have time to make precious cards for my little nieces and nephews [spoiler alert! Hunter] and for my friends too. And I was toying with the thought of making an awesome one for someoneeee ...however, he has filled my head with falsities about becoming a blog follower. So I might just have to wait that one out.

Anyway, whether you adore Vday or roll your eyes at it, you'll love these cute, personalized cards for the little ones. They still get cupcakes, those nasty little chalk heart things with the words on them, <3 heart shaped cookies [just craved Ryal's Bakery, yum], and strawberry shortcake/power ranger valentines.. why not add to the fun!? I did these on photoshop and indesign and printed them on cream colored blank cards that I had. Here's the finished products:

...roses are red

violets are blue

even though I'm usually bitter

these valentines are cute.